President Obama might have his boy Larry Summers go out and do 5 or 6 high profile interviews (say for example with Judy Woodruff at Bloomberg, Al Hunt, or New Yorker magazine etc…) and ask the open question: Why did seven of nine Goldman top recommended trades lose money for clients, but Goldman’s trades in its own account were 96% successful???? If NEC Director Summers doesn’t have the stomach to lambaste his dear friends at Goldman, maybe they can get someone with real balls like Austan Goolsbee to speak out on the matter. He could also casually ask why Republican Mitch McConnell is having private meetings with hedge-funds while some Kentuckians are paying monstrous credit card rates and having their houses foreclosed on.

“Countdown to the Senate vote
Here’s the latest Tweetaganda from the Corporatist in Chief:

“The Senate could vote today on Wall Street reform.

Right now, the bill would not just rein in Wall Street and prevent future taxpayer bailouts of the big banks, it would put into place the strongest consumer financial protections ever proposed.

The big banks’ lobbyists are determined to water down reform – or kill it altogether. And they’re putting extraordinary pressure on their Republican allies to buck the American public and help block strong reform.

We need to make sure the phones in Republican Senate offices are ringing off the hook with Americans who support strong Wall Street reform.”
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How many Democrats voted against the Brown-Kaufman amendment last week?

It truly is a sad day in America when a senator ( Dick Durban ) can openly exclaim that Wall Street owns the Untied States Senate. Just the words ” They own us” sent shivers throughout. Is this really what America has come to?

Perhaps it is easier to go with the flow, relax, rationalize, and be diverted and entertained by “the show.” The truth may set you free, but before that it can make you feel very insecure and uncomfortable, especially when it requires challenging the “official story” and policy decisions. Better to say nothing offensive to the oligarchs, and even occasionally to utter intelligent sounding condemnations of those who dare to question the very things you wonder about, and fear, in order to prove your loyalty and to reassure yourself that you are a right-thinking, practical individual. For the disparity that is unavoidably noticed between what is seen and what is said makes one uneasy, fearful that they are losing their bearings, if not reason. And the vested interests play on those fears.

The consequences of “extend and pretend” will be to worsen the final outcome, the day of reckoning.

“The initial deviation from the truth will be multiplied a thousandfold.” Aristotle

The banks must be restrained, the financial and political system reformed, and balance restored to the economy, before there can be any sustained recovery.

This may be the second truthful statement that Durban has ever uttered in his life.

Just on the 18th. Dodd sought an amendment to “his” bill regarding derivatives…the 19th. saw him pull it…why???…if it was such a well thought through amendment in the first place why pull it a day later???

A message to the people;

Depending upon the same crooks who began this mess to suddenly have a change of heart and do the right thing for the taxpaying citizens is sheer folly…Dodd just proved it in the span of 24hrs.

Jessie’s quote is a powerful one, however, I would feel better if reform were put off until “new blood” is introduced into the House and Senate.